Wednesday, February 22, 2017

I am thrilled to say that I have been selected as the "featured stamper" for this week's Color Throwdown. Such a thrill!

Below are this week's colors:

Mint Green, Green, Plum and Light Brown

Here is my card:

I chose to create a background using the challenge colors. I wanted to create a fun and playful card, and what's more fun than colorful dots? I think I could easily have polka dots or stripes on every card that I make. The "hello" stamp is from the SendingHappy Thoughts set by Simon Says Stamp. I stamped the image randomly over the card panel mixing the four different colors and then placed the panel onto a brown card base.

The big "hello"sentiment was die cut two times out of white card stock and once with brown card stock. I stacked the three of them together with the brown one on the top and then I coated it with a Wink of Stella pen for a little sparkle and shine. To prevent the sentiment from getting lost on the busy background, I placed it on vellum to soften the background a bit. This makes it much easier to read, but still be able to see the dots underneath. Lastly, I placed the sentiment over a postage stamp frame that I cut out of white card stock and then used an ink dauber to color it the same plum as on the hellos. At first, I thought the postage frame was too small, but I ended up liking the look of the "hello" overlapping the frame on each side. That also helped to separate the sentiment from the busy background and give it a little more pop.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Welcome! Another week, another Throwdown Challenge! :o) Below are the colors for this week's challenge:

...and here is my card:

When I saw these colors for the challenge, I thought PLAID! I've always wanted to try my hand at creating a plaid background, but never gave it a whirl, so this was my opportunity. And guess what? Next time, I won't wait so long! This was definitely fun. I have several different stamp sets for creating plaid, but I decided to go with this one from SSS. Next time, I think I might get a little wild and combine sets.

The only part that was a little tricky was the length of the stamps. When you stamp on a diagonal, you cannot cover the entire card panel. That's why the plaid on the card front is trimmed. (I think I like it better this way anyway). The bottom of the card is patterned paper from MFT, which just so happened to match perfectly. I've always loved mixing patterns together, especially when creating scrapbook pages.

On the Throwdown website, the challenge suggests to use turquoise, sage green, gold or kraft and dark brown. Instead of using gold OR kraft, I went with BOTH. (I'm such a rebel!) The thin gold stripes on the card are actually done with a gold Uni-ball pen. I really like how the gold gave it a nice, finishing touch.

I added the sentiment and popped up the card panel with fun foam, added a twine bow and some Ocean Spray sequins to complete the card.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Hello! I am sharing a card today for this week's Color Throwdown #429. Here is the color palette for this week.

...and here is my card:

I started by embossing one of my favorite background stamps of all time (Bundles of Blossoms) onto a card panel of Neenah Solar White cardstock with white embossing powder. I blended Mermaid Lagoon distress ink onto the bottom of the panel and Carved Pumpkin on the top. I cut it in half and placed it onto a card base. I used a die to cut the "hooray" out of black cardstock and then heat embossed it with Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder, added the sentiment, some sequins and voila!

Here is my card for this week's Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp. The theme for this challenge is "CUTE". I think I succeeded... How flipping cute is this donkey?

I began my card by embossing the background with white embossing powder on watercolor paper. I used distress inks with water to color in all the circles. The donkey is stamped, then masked also on watercolor paper. I used distress inks with an ink blender for the grass and sky, then I used a distress sprayer to spray some water on it, then blotted with a paper towel.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Hello! Here is my card for the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp. The theme is Young at Heart and can be interpreted in any way that inspires! I decided to go the "heart route" and have lots of hearts on my card.

My background was done by repeatedly stamping the "always thinking of you" circle stamp with embossing ink using my Misti. I heat embossed each circle with white embossing powder. Next, I used 3 different distress inks for a blended, colorful background. The sentiment was stamped on orange cardstock with black ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder for a little more clarity. For the finishing touch, a glittery heart and some Hero Arts gemstones.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Today, I have a card for the "Color of Love" Challenge at Simon Says Stamp. The challenge asks to showcase Reverse Confetti products, along with a Love Theme.

Here is my card:

It was perfect timing for this challenge as I just got some new products from Reverse Confetti's latest release. I used a die from the XOXO Hearts set and cut out 5 heart strips from 5 different cheery colors of cardstock. I also used the interior hearts from the strips and decided to inlay them in a different color to get the quirky, fun look that I was going for. The card base was stamped using the Diagonal Stripe background stamp from Simon Says Stamp in a hot pink color.

The sentiment is heat embossed in white on black cardstock and cut in to a fish tail banner. I added the pink heart (from a different SSS set) to replace the original heart on the sentiment and I coated it with Glossy Accents.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Today I have a card for the latest Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. The inspiration is to come from the Pandora jewelry website. After browsing through the website, I was inspired by this charm:

...and here is my card:

I began by randomly stamping 3 different sized hearts with embossing ink on watercolor paper and then embossed them with silver embossing powder. I wet each one with plain water and them water colored them using Festive Berries distress ink. For the areas in between the hearts, I loosely water colored them with Pumice Stone distress ink just to break up the stark background. When everything was dry, I spritzed the entire panel using a distress sprayer, let it sit for about 20 seconds and then blotted with a paper towel.

I used a word bubble die from PTI for the front panel and also cut a second one from white cardstock to use the negative piece for the sentiment. The front panel is popped up using foam tape onto black cardstock. For the finishing touch, a scattering of flat, 6mm silver circles from PPP.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Hello! I am back with a card for this week's Color Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers (CC620). Below are the colors for this week's challenge.

...and here is my card:

I've been wanting to use this stamp set from Altenew and when I saw this challenge, I knew that this set would be perfect. I had an idea in my head and I ran with it! For some reason, I have been into making my own backgrounds lately. In fact, that's the easy part for me. The hard part is what to put on top of it and how!

I started by selecting the inks to best match the challenge palette. After a bit of "testing", I finally found the right colors. I picked out 3 stamps from this set and then matched each one with a specific color and then randomly stamped my background. Once the stamping part was done, I felt it was still lacking something. It needed just a "little something" to bring it all together. Well, that "little something" was black Nuvo Drops. I was a bit nervous to just start scattering them on my paper, so I practiced a bit first on some scrap paper. Once I started adding the drops to the card, I loved how it all started coming together.

I chose a sentiment from PTI and stamped it on vellum with black ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The vellum sentiment is framed with a postage stamp die from Avery Elle cut from white cardstock and then I used an ink dauber with the same blue ink to color it the same blue as the flowers.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Happy Hump Day, everyone! Today I am playing along with Color Throwdown #428 and Sketch Challenge #630 at Splitcoast Stampers.. Below is this week's color palette for the Color Throwdown.

Red, Pink and Chocolate Brown

...and here is the sketch from Splitcoast Stampers:

Here is my card:

I really like these colors together. I would never have thought that brown would look good on a Valentines card, but I actually dig it here, LoL. I used a retired stamp set from SSS for the hearts. I randomly stamped them in different colors to create my background. I used a circle die to cut the circle out of the top panel and then used foam tape to pop the top panel off of the card base. The sentiment if from a CTMH set and heat embossed on brown cardstock with white embossing powder and then a few sequins for the finishing touch!